St. Albert RCMP detachment commander Insp. Ryan Comaniuk said he needs a dedicated civilian field investigator to handle public complaints against members in the detachment.
“We are on track to almost double the number of public complaints in 2022,” he said in an email to The Gazette.
Public complaints against RCMP members and how they are managed was the topic of focus at the St. Albert Policing Committee meeting held virtually on April 26. One of the concerns Comaniuk raised was the amount of time it takes his members to investigate complaints.
The service standard set forth by the RCMP and the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) — an independent agency created by Parliament to ensure that public complaints made about the conduct of RCMP members are examined fairly and impartially — is 90 days for resolution or completion of an investigation.
“Currently, I have a couple of public complaints that have exceeded the prescribed 90-day service standards. This is as a result of various operational challenges coupled with the organizational expectation that my supervisors complete these investigations off the sides of their desk,” he said.
Comaniuk said in order to meet service expectations, he needs to build additional capacity with the detachment.
“I am now exploring several options to onboard a civilian employee and detachment SME (subject matter expert) who will be dedicated to public complaints,” he said
Comaniuk said there have been nine complaints against St. Albert RCMP members this year. Last year there was a total of 16. There were 59 complaints in the last five years.
In St. Albert, about 75 per cent of public complaints against RCMP members fall into the categories of improper attitude and neglect of duty; however, there are 17 different types of allegations categories.
During the meeting, Sgt. Phil Penny with the professional responsibilities unit for the RCMP, spoke about the public complaints process life cycle.
Penny said any person can make a complaint about the conduct of any of the RCMP’s members regarding their duty or function under the RCMP Act.
“You can't just complain, make a public complaint, about a member for just being there, OK. They also need to be performing the execution of the duty,” Penny said.
Penny said there are two ways in which a person can initiate a public complaint. One way is through the CRCC’s website, or a person can go directly through their RCMP detachment.
Comaniuk said people are asked to contact their nearest RCMP detachment or local police authority, as reporting to these locations allows for proper documentation and the appropriate determination of action to be made.
If a person is dissatisfied with the way a complaint was handled, they have the right to go to the CRCC.
Penny said, if a person goes directly to the CRCC website they will be able to fill out a PDF form that will ensure the complaint meets all the requirements.
The CRCC prefers to receive complaints within 12 months of the date of the incident, but that is not written in stone, said Penny.
“If [the CRCC] finds that a complainant is trying to report something beyond those 12 months, they ask for some rationale as to why it wasn't reported within the 12 months if they find that the rationale is reasonable. Then they'll grant the public complaint to move forward. But traditionally, they're looking at a 12-month window,” said Penny.
Penny said an individual can have legal counsel representing them or even a relative or guardian.
It is also not a requirement for a person to know the name of the RCMP member they are making a complaint against.
“In my experience, I don't think I've run into a scenario yet where I haven't been able to figure out who the person is. It's reasonable that the complainant might not know this person's name and that's perfectly fine,” he said.
Most complaints will fall under Part VII and do not result in discipline, rather the results are typically some form of operational guidance to the subject member or members, or education for the complainant in the area of legislation, policy, and procedures, said Comaniuk.
If a complaint is serious enough it will be raised to Code of Conduct — Part IV of the RCMP Act, Statutory Investigation.
“If I have a public complaint that is alleging something egregious enough, it will push into the Part IV — the decision-maker will recognize that the Part VII process isn't the place for this thing to stay, because it's non-punitive. If it's egregious enough that the better option is to look at a punitive measure [then] that would be Part IV,” said Penny.
Comaniuk said in the last five years, no complaints in St. Albert have moved into Part IV.
Once the investigation is complete, the detachment investigator or delegate will complete a letter of decision.
If an allegation is established, the commander will look at remedies to address the behavior to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future, said Penney. If the allegations are not established, the final letter will be forwarded to the National Public Complaint Database to review, and then mailed to the complainant and the subject member.
Comaniuk said the length of time it takes to resolve complaints depends on the complainant and the type of complaint. A Part VII investigation is 130 hours, on average.
“Some public complaints are withdrawn or resolved informally after the investigator contacts the complainant. In these instances, there is typically a misunderstanding or misconception on the part of the complainant around police authorities while in the execution of their duties,” said Comaniuk.
